As revealed on Wednesday night’s episode of the Spike TV reality
show, it will be lightweights Jonathan
Brookins and Michael
Johnson vying for the mantle of “The Ultimate Fighter” this
Saturday at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. Brookins earned a
unanimous nod over teammate Kyle Watson in
his semi-final bout, while Johnson eliminated the Josh
Koscheck-trained veteran Nam Phan in a
tight split decision to reach the finale.

On the undercard, Phan will drop to 145 pounds to take on WEC
veteran Leonard
Garcia in a match first reported by MMAJunkie.com on Wednesday.
Also reported by the site and since confirmed by the promotion is a
bout between Watson and Sako
Chivitchyan, as well as a showdown of quarter-finalists
Cody
McKenzie and Aaron
Wilkinson.

The “TUF 12” finale will mark Brookins’ first official Zuffa bout
since his one-and-done WEC stint in November 2008. The 25-year-old
Orlando native met Jose Aldo in
Aldo’s second WEC bout, lasting into the third round before
succumbing to punches from the current UFC featherweight champion.
Brookins has since tried his hand at professional boxing and reeled
off a trio of MMA wins in Florida, including one on Bellator
Fighting Championships’ inaugural card in April 2009. Prior to his
semi-final win over Watson, Brookins tore through three other “TUF
12” opponents -- Chivitchyan, Ran Weathers
and Sevak
Magakian -- submitting each via rear-naked choke.

Johnson, meanwhile, will face the bright lights for the first time
on Saturday, having competed almost exclusively for local
promotions in and around his home base of Springfield, Mo.
Nicknamed “The Menace,” Johnson, 24, carries a three-fight
professional win streak into the match, not including his “TUF 12”
wins over Phan, Wilkinson, Alex Caceres
and Pablo
Garza.

Along with the Brookins-Johnson final, Saturday’s card will be
co-headlined by a 205-pound duel between original “Ultimate
Fighter” finalist Stephan
Bonnar and Croatian Igor
Pokrajac. Also slated for the Spike-televised broadcast are a
middleweight bout between former title challenger Demian Maia
and “TUF 3” winner Kendall
Grove, and a welterweight match pitting unbeaten prospect
Johny
Hendricks against the surging Rick Story.